Why The US Government Shutdown Left the International Community Confused

BY LOUISA DE VOS

This article was posted as an engagement with Victoria Sgarro’s post about the government shutdown on October 9th, 2013. 

The terms ‘Shutdown’ and ‘Obamacare’ have by definition nothing in common. But in my home country of Belgium, it is however remarkable that they appear inextricably linked with each other in the press.

It is fair to say that we (Europeans) barely can imagine how a shutdown would be. Here in Belgium we had no government for 541 days,but it didn’t interfere with our lives that much. We could still go to museums, and the bureaucratic merry-go-round carried on.
In our minds, images of lonely dust balls floating over the deserted streets of America (like in the movies), caused both fascination and intrigue.

The shutdown became a fact when some (those-who-must-not-be-named) refused to sign the budget, to prevent the Obamacare from being funded. The principle of organised solidarity is so ingrained in Belgium that we wonder why anyone in America would make up a fuss about something like that. Despite the political parties’ different ideologies, no one disputes the notion of redistribution of income,so that high quality education, culture, social security, health insurance…is accessible to everybody.

We cannot approach the ‘Obamacare’ issue without paying attention to the American political system, where one party has the last word, and where it is possible that a group like the Tea Party could have such a strong influence to bring about a shutdown of government. That one interest group can wield such a big stick over the whole country is frightening to say the least. And then I realised why Obamacare causes so much controversy—it’s because Americans see personal choice and freedom to be inalienable,and a law putting them under such an obligation touches the American soul at its core. And yet, I couldn’t help wonder why that should be a problem. A creature of habit doesn’t like to change. But after a while it gets used to the change itself. Was female suffrage at first not extremely controversal, and now a basic right?

Obamacare is the law now, but this is not necessarily cause for exultation, because there’s the possibility that the next president will repeal it. I can only hope that Obamacare will trickle slowly but surely through into the American mind, so health insurance becomes prevalent, regardless of ideological differences.

Louisa De Vos is a student at Erasmus Hogeschool in Brussels, Belgium. She can be reaced at louisa.dv@gmail.com.